Ground traversing meso-scale robotic vehicles (e.g. robots on the order of or less than one cubic foot in volume) can be limited in the types of terrain they can negotiate. Typically, wheeled robots (e.g. robots comprising wheels or tracks for mobility) are unable to negotiate obstacles greater than one half their wheel diameter or one half their track length. The relative number and size of obstacles that must be negotiated by a robot, increases with decreasing size of the robot. The combination of increased relative obstacle size and, the inability of conventional wheeled or tracked robotic vehicles to traverse large obstacles leads directly to the need for a new and innovative vehicle to cope with these problems.
To meet these needs, robotic vehicles with wheeled mobility have been developed that include a hopping mobility. A wheeled hopping robot (e.g. a wheeled hopping vehicle or a “WHV”) achieves an enhanced obstacle negotiation capability through the use of a linear actuator (e.g. a combustion driven piston) to provide hopping mobility in concert with motor driven wheeled mobility. A linear actuator attached to a robotic vehicle and in contact a surface supporting the vehicle (e.g. the ground) can provide hopping mobility to the vehicle by the rapid extension of the actuator, thereby imparting an upward and/or forward acceleration of the vehicle which can allow the vehicle to hop over large obstacles.
Embodiments of the invention include wheeled robotic vehicles having a powered linear actuator(s). Embodiments of the invention can include directional control provided through a steering system incorporated into the wheeled mobility, wherein the steering system can be used to orient the vehicle in a desired direction prior to initiating a hop. Other embodiments of the invention include self-righting wheeled robotic vehicles having a powered linear actuator(s). Still other embodiments of the invention comprise combustion powered linear actuators that are compact, while providing a long external stroke, and are capable of multiple hop operations. Further embodiments of the invention comprise combustion powered linear actuators including latching mechanisms that provide for pressurization of fuel-oxidizer charges delivered to the actuators. Still further embodiments of the invention comprise fuel metering, control and delivery systems for combustion powered linear actuators. Embodiments of the present invention include meso-scale robotic vehicles having wheeled and hopping mobilities, that can travel distances on the order of a few kilometers and, can traverse (i.e hop over) obstacles many times the size of the vehicle.